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Other X.Org Discussions At The Ubuntu 11.04 Summit

10-28-2010, 08:40 PM

Phoronix: Other X.Org Discussions At The Ubuntu 11.04 Summit

Two days ago we reported on what the graphics stack should look like for Ubuntu 11.04 in terms of its X.Org Server, Mesa / Gallium3D, and the open-source graphics driver versions to be deployed in this next Linux operating system release codenamed the Natty Narwhal. This though wasn't the only X-related discussion to take place at the Ubuntu 11.04 developer summit in Orlando this week, but there were other related topics discussed such as KMS configuration / quirk handling, the multi-monitor experience on the Ubuntu desktop, and multi-touch support. There were also talks aimed at Linaro / embedded Ubuntu on ARM platforms with regards to embedded GPU drivers and OpenGL ES support...

"Back when the open-source drivers relied on user-space mode-setting, affected users could use a variety of options within the xorg.conf to override values and handle quirks within the server. However, with kernel mode-setting that support is out the window. "

Um, what? As I understand it, this is not true at all. You can still enter modelines into xorg.conf and specify preferred display modes via xorg.conf whether you're using old X, post-RandR 1.2 X, UMS or KMS. Really not sure what this is about.

Comment

I suspect the statement was supposed to be parsed as something like "if you can get modelines into xorg.conf they probably still work but since you can't see the screen to type anything...".

I don't actually know if modelines can be passed down to KMS (so nobody take the above as confirmation that you can or can not), but I think it's the inability to see what you are typing that is the main issue.

Comment

gnome mostly takes care of all this, at least in Fedora we've pretty much got,

auto-detect of digital monitors, and EDID capable analog monitors,
monitor switch key will work through a list of configuratons
saved configurations list
video= on command line for basic EDID override + xorg.conf for X overrides,

when no monitors are plugged in we'll setup a 1024x768, and even start X here and when you hotplug something gdm should pick it up.

Though of course patches from the Ubuntu guys are always welcome, though I'm guessing they'll forget to actually discuss the issues upstream first, hack up a pile of shit and then blame us for not taking it.

Comment

Do you think GNOME should be responsible for it? I can accept that the configuration you want for GNOME may not be the configuration you want for something else but it would be nice to have some common interface for handling this.